As the official release of Lion approaches, one of the things that many of us are excited about is an overhauled Mail.app. Among other improvements, the interface has been overhauled so that it’s much more like its iPad counterpart, especially where threading is concerned.

However, here at AppStorm we’re still huge fans of one of the best Mac email clients around: Postbox, which you can download and start using today. With an all new version, Postbox is more enticing than ever as a powerful, professional alternative to the native Mac Mail client. Let’s take a brief look at what it has to offer.(more…)

Today’s poll is a fun walk down memory lane. I’m very interested to know how young or old our audience is in their Mac-using lives. Leave your answer in the poll on the right and let us know which was the first Mac operating system you really used extensively or owned yourself. Did you start when it was simply referred to as “System” software or are you a newbie who only just got your start on Snow Leopard?

After you vote, leave a comment below and tell us about your first Mac. I’ll start us off. Though I really began using Macs around OS 8, the first Mac I really owned was a Blueberry iMac running OS 9. I loved all the neat little sound effects the windows made and spent endless hours poking around the system to see what I could find.

The last Windows machine I owned ran Windows 3.1 and that’s honestly the last time I really used Windows on a daily basis! Once I switched to a Mac I never looked back. How about you? Do you own and use both operating systems regularly or are you a die-hard Mac-loving PC hater from way back?

We’d like to take a moment to say a big thank you to this week’s sponsor, Jumsoft Money

Jumsoft, a developer of high-quality applications for Mac OS X, has completely overhauled its most popular product, the finance and budgeting application Money. It provides small businesses and home users with a simple and remarkably effective way to track their financial records and create budgets. Among other novelties, the new Money 4 features a fully redesigned user interface, allows direct downloads from financial institutions, and institutes smart importing rules and a document-based system that allows multiple users to work with a single copy of the application.

Money was first released in 2003 and has gained wide popularity among small businesses and home users of Mac since then. Fans of Money appreciate its combination of high usability and effective finance management.

“Whether our clients wish to keep track of their personal expenditures or create monthly budgets for their business, Money is designed for them,” says Algirdas Unguvaitis, Jumsoft’s general manager. “We have put a great deal of time and effort into the fourth installment of the application, and we truly hope our clients will be satisfied with the final result.”

Keeping files synced between different computers, servers and external drives isn’t the easiest task in the world. You constantly have to compare multiple versions to see which is the most recent and spend far too much time manually copying files from one location to another. This is especially true of web developers who work locally and then have to push those changes to the web for testing.

With FolderWatch, virtually all of the work is removed from this process. After a simple setup process, FolderWatch will keep an eye on the specified folders and sync any changes automatically.

We recently published an article titled “iCloud: What It Isn’t” that walked through what we all expected to see from iCloud and how that significantly differed from what we actually got.

Basically, the gist is that everyone expected a browser-based music player but Apple delivered a way to keep your music and data synced in a native environment. To some, the reality is actually way more useful than the expectation. Others may be disappointed that their music isn’t really being stored in the cloud for access from any device. I myself have a Google Music Beta account but can’t for the life of me think of when I’ll use it.

Today we want to know your opinion. With plenty of us toting around a MacBook, iPhone, iPod and/or iPad, is there really a reason to have a Google-Music-like cloud player for all your music? Are there significant amounts of time where you don’t have access to your music collection? Vote in the poll on the right and leave a comment below explaining your thoughts.

We’d like to take a moment to say a big thank you to this week’s sponsor, SideFolders

SideFolders is an awesome little utility that gives you quick and easy access to your files from anywhere. By docking on the side of your screen and only showing up when you want it to SideFolders is never in your way but is always ready to go when you need to open something.

We reviewed SideFolders back in April and the latest version (1.5) has even more to offer including a great new interface, the ability to browse folders right in the app, a configurable delay to prevent accidental flyouts and a customizable show/hide global keyboard shortcut!

At a mere $4.99 on the Mac App Store, this is an incredibly useful tool that can really speed up your workflow. I was skeptical myself at first but as soon as I started using it I realized that I’d probably never want to be without it. The developer is very devoted to the project and continually turns user suggestions into great features. Check it out for yourself today!

There is quite a bit of screenshot functionality built right into OS X. Using global shortcuts, you can grab the entire screen, a specific area or even a specific window and place it either on your desktop or into your clipboard. Also, with QuickTime, you now have the ability to record everything on your screen to a simple movie.

Despite all this functionality, there is definitely room for improvement. Apps like LittleSnapper and Screenium give you tons of professional functionality, but will cost you a whopping $30. So where’s the happy medium of an affordable utility that still packs plenty of great features? Screeny attempts to do just that. Read on to see how it fares.

Today we’re going look way back to the beginning and see a platform and a company that was defined by breaking the mold and breaking free of restrictions and uniformity.

We’ll contrast this with a critical look at the direction that Apple is headed in today. Do their current goals reflect the anti-establishment personality portrayed in the infamous 1984 commercial or have they become the establishment?

This week we’re focusing in on the Mac App Store quite heavily. Personally, I really love how easy it has become to find, download and update great new Mac Apps. However, I’m far from admitting that the system is perfect!

Later today we’ll have a roundup of awesome apps that you won’t find on the Mac App Store. Later this week we’ll take a deeper look into the general direction that Apple is guiding the software industry and whether or not its a good thing for users. For now, we want to know about your biggest beef with the Mac App Store. Are you frustrated with the pricing structure or unhappy with the current selection? Let us know in the poll!

After you vote, leave a comment below explaining your answers. Has your overall experience with the Mac App Store positive or negative? How often do you check in and see what new apps have arrived?